Always Time to Be a Hero
by Deliwiel
Summary: While MacGyver is out doing a bit of grocery shopping, he gets caught in the middle of a robbery. I guess our favorite hero can't go anywhere without getting into some sort of danger... Rated T just to be safe.


_**Hey hey! So. This idea came to me last night as I was working on a certain sequel to a certain story of mine, and it wouldn't leave me alone. I wrote it mostly last night, then went back and read through it and edited it today, but it's only had a few read-throughs, so if you find any mistakes, that would be why. (*Whispers* wait, did I just tell them that I'm working on the sequel to LBNF?! Oh no!)**_

 _ **Don't worry, Jellybean is all finished and I'll be posting chapters as they're edited. There may be one up tonight, but more than likely it will be tomorrow morning sometime :)**_

 _ **Anyway, let me know what you think :)**_

 _ **Whaaat? They STILL don't belong to me? Dangit.**_

MacGyver walked through the aisle of the small mom & pop grocery store, grabbing items from his list that he needed and sticking them in the basket he was carrying.

" _You may be asking why I'm at the store in the middle of the night. Well, let me tell you. I'm here for two reasons: one, I'm out of basically everything. I always seem to push off grocery shopping until the last possible minute, when I am in dire need of practically everything needed for human to survival. It's not like I have a high stress job that keeps me away from home for long periods of time...Anyway. The second reason I'm here is because Bozer needed supplies to make props for his movie. Why does he need this stuff so late at night? You've got me. So here I am, 11 o'clock at night, making a grocery run for my roommate and me. Hooray for being single..."_

There were only one or two other shoppers in the store with him, and he found everything he needed as fast as he could. He made his way up to the checkout stand, waiting patiently while he let the older woman walking nearby go through first. She smiled gratefully at him as she walked by. As he waited his turn in line, he picked up one of the magazines and leafed through it briefly before setting it back where he had gotten it from. He glanced a little further to the right, seeing small lighters on a stand. MacGyver chuckled as he could hear Jack in his head.

"Kid, you don't need another lighter! If anyone walked into your house and saw how many lighters you have, they'd probably call the cops and have you arrested under suspicion of being an arsonist or something!"

As he was thinking about his friend, someone walked past Mac, bumping into him hard enough to make him stumble. He gave an annoyed look at the man now in front of him, but decided not to say anything. That is, until he saw him pull a gun from inside his hoodie and wave it around at the few people in the store.

"You!" he shouted, gesturing at MacGyver, a twenty-something-year-old woman, and the older woman, who were the only other shoppers in the store. "Get on the ground!" he yelled. MacGyver and the women did as they were told, but while the man looked away, MacGyver quickly grabbed one of the lighters he had been staring at just moments before.

"Open the register, put all the cash in a paper sack and give it to me!" the man instructed the cashier. His voice was muffled, and as the robber was glancing around, MacGyver noticed that he had a bandana covering the lower half of his face. The cashier was trembling, and she was having a hard time punching in the correct code to get the register open. "Come ON!" the man shouted, jabbing the gun in the poor girl's face.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" the girl cried as she finally punched in the correct numbers. Her trembling hands began pulling out the money and putting the bills into one of the brown paper bags usually used for small groceries.

As quickly as he could without being noticed, MacGyver reached into his basket full of items and pulled out the can of hairspray Bozer had requested. He was eternally grateful that he had chosen one of the cans that didn't have plastic sealing the top. Mac gently pulled the lid off and got ready to act. He nudged the older woman lightly, and when she looked at him, he gestured for her to get behind one of the shelves. She saw the items in his hands and nodded, scooching back as quickly, but quietly as she could without drawing the man's attention. MacGyver did the same to the other shopper, the young woman. When she saw what he had, her eyes grew wide and she shook her head at him.

"Trust me," he mouthed at her, motioning her back again. She looked doubtful, but finally relented and moved back.

As soon as the other shoppers were safely behind the shelves, MacGyver hopped to his feet. The cashier looked at him in alarm and he motioned for her to get down. Her eyes widened and she did as he told.

The robber saw her eyes widen, and was confused when she ducked. He turned around right as MacGyver lit the lighter and pushed the nozzle to release the contents of his aerosol can. A flame shot towards the robber, who yelled and threw his hands up in alarm.

Mac dropped the items and jumped towards the robber, knocking him into the counter. The two of them fell to the floor, the man's gun clattering to the ground. MacGyver and the gunman struggled for a few moments, then Mac drove his fist into the other man's face. The robber was stunned, and MacGyver reached over and yanked the bandana off his face.

The man was young, somewhere in his mid-to-late-twenties. He struggled under the agent, but Mac's grip on him was strong. "Call the police," he called out to the other shoppers.

Several things happened at once. MacGyver felt the struggling of the man underneath him and he heard someone talking to the police. The next thing he heard though was a click, a bang, and then a searing pain tore through his side.

He collapsed to the side with a groan, hands scrabbling frantically where the pain was most intense to try and stop the pain. His vision was blurry, but he watched as the young woman from before hurried and helped the robber up, then the two of them ran out the door. Mac tried to push himself to his feet to give chase, but only succeeded in getting halfway up before the pain became unbearable and he collapsed back to the ground again.

He blinked and the next thing he knew, the cashier was bending over him while he distantly heard the older woman in the background talking to someone. Pain exploded in his side and he moaned, twisting to try and get away.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he heard the girl above him say. She sounded stressed, like she was going into shock, and MacGyver forced himself to open his eyes further to look at her.

"You're...doin' f'ne," he assured her.

"I'm sorry, I have to keep pressure on the wound," she said, and Mac felt more pain in his side. He gave a small groan and closed his eyes for what only felt like a split-second, but when he opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by a bunch of EMT's wheeling him out on a gurney. He felt the cool breeze as they walked outside, and it helped calm his mind down a little bit. Another blink and suddenly he was inside an ambulance. He could hear the sirens wailing, and he felt something covering the lower half of his face. He lifted his hand to take it off, but before he could, a firm, gentle grip stopped him.

"You need to keep the mask on," he heard above him. Everything sounded muffled, and Mac wasn't quite sure what was happening, but he relented and lowered his hand. He felt a prick on his arm, then a cool sensation flowed through his veins. "Just a light sedative," he heard the same voice from before say. "Your body is going into shock, and you keep fighting us. We need you to remain calm; I promise you, everything is going to be okay."

MacGyver was going to try and respond, but the effects of the sedative took hold and his eyes closed, letting him drift off into a more peaceful rest.

 _0-0-0_

The first thing he became aware of was an annoying beeping off to his right. He opened his eyes, a little bit at first, then when he realized the lights were dim enough, he opened them the rest of the way.

He was in a clean white hospital room. He had a couple IV's taped to his arm, and a pulse oximeter on his finger. He tried to remember why he was here, then his memories rushed back to him. He glanced at a clock on the wall. The numbers read 5:30 AM.

"Well," a sweet voice from the doorway said. Mac glanced over to see a nurse in blue scrubs walking towards him. "It's good to see you awake," she commented as she picked up his charts and flipped through them. She glanced up at him. "How are you pain-wise?"

MacGyver opened his mouth to respond, but all that came out was a dry cough. The nurse smiled sympathetically and walked over. She picked up a glass of water off the bedside table and handed it to Mac, who drank it thankfully.

"Not too fast now," she warned. She took the cup back when MacGyver was finished, then asked again. "How are your pain levels?"

"It's not bad," he replied. Her eyebrow raised a little, and she glanced down at his charts again. He tried to hide his wince, but she looked back up at him right as he made the facial expression. Her look changed from disbelief to a small level of smugness.

"Uh huh, that's what I thought," she said. She walked over to one of the IV lines and opened it a little more, releasing liquid into the line. "Don't worry, it won't knock you out," she promised. "Though I _do_ think you should try to get some more rest," she added, giving MacGyver a stern look.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if that's gonna happen with this kid," a familiar voice sounded from the doorway. MacGyver sat up a little while the nurse turned to look at who was in the room. Jack was standing there with a small smile on his face. "Sorry, they said I could come in," Jack said, jerking his thumb back, gesturing towards what was probably the nurse's station.

"That's fine," the nurse replied. "I just think Mr. MacGyver needs his rest," she explained.

"Don't worry, I won't keep him up longer than he can stay awake," Jack promised. The nurse nodded and walked out of the room. Jack grabbed a chair and hauled it over to the side of the bed. "You can't go anywhere without getting into some sort of trouble, can you?" he asked in a joking tone.

"Hey, it's not my fault I didn't know there were two of them!" Mac defended himself.

"I know kid, I'm teasing," Jack insisted. "But the local police do want to know if you would be able to give a description of the robbers," Jack added. MacGyver nodded at his friend.

"Yeah, I got a pretty good look at them," he replied.

"Great. I'll let them know," Jack said with a smile. He stood up. "I'll be right back," he promised.

MacGyver watched as Jack left the room, and he leaned back against the pillows. He closed his eyes, only meaning to keep them closed for a second, but when he opened them again, he found that almost an hour had passed. When he finally cracked his eyes open, the sun was beginning to shine through the window, and he saw Jack sitting in the recliner chair near the window, reading a book. Jack looked up as he heard his friend shifting.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty," he teased. "Feel better?"

MacGyver chuckled softly. "Oh yeah," he replied. "Just peachy!"

Jack stood up and walked over towards his friend. "The local cops say they'll have a sketch artist drop by sometime this morning," he informed the young man. Mac nodded in understanding and Jack continued. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something," he said.

"Uh oh," Mac replied, raising his eyebrows. "That conversation starter never ends well."

"No, it's not anything bad," Jack assured him. "It's just, when you were shot, I was the one the police and hospital called. I know I'm your emergency contact, and you're mine. That's not what I didn't know. When the hospital called, they informed me about something I was unaware of," he said. MacGyver gave him a questioning look. "You have me listed as your Medical Power of Attorney?" Jack asked as he sat down next to the bed. Mac looked at him strangely.

"Well...yeah," he said, sounding slightly confused at why this was surprising news. "You're the closest I have to family besides Bozer, and I trust you to make the right call," he explained. Jack chuckled.

"So that means I have the power to pull your plug, huh?" he asked jokingly. MacGyver gave a sarcastic laugh.

"You're hilarious! Get me my attorney, I'm changing the Power of Attorney over to Boze," he quipped. Jack chuckled again.

"Nah man, seriously though. That means a lot to me," Jack said, all joking aside. MacGyver gave a small smile back.

"No one else I'd rather have," he said, putting his hand on Jack's knee.

"Wow Mac, didn't know you felt that way," Jack said, placing his hand over his heart and getting back to his usual sarcastic, Jacky self. MacGyver rolled his eyes while he scoffed.

"Way to ruin the serious moment, Jack," Mac berated lightly.

"What can I say?" Jack asked. "It's just not my thing." As MacGyver shook his head, Jack stood up. "I'm gonna run talk to the doctors and get us something to eat, okay?"

"Sure, sounds good," Mac said. Jack gave his young friend a thumbs-up and headed out the door. MacGyver leaned back in his pillows, deciding if he wasn't going to be getting out of the hospital imminently, he really was tired. He closed his eyes and within a few minutes, he was out like a light.

 _0-0-0_

MacGyver woke up slowly, drifting in and out, but finally he felt himself waking up for good. He felt the presence of someone else in the room with him, and he figured it must be Jack, back from his errands. He opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the low lighting of the hospital room. Once he could see fairly well again, he glanced around, trying to find his friend.

It was not his friend that he laid eyes on though. There were two people instead of just one, and they saw him staring at them. They immediately hurried towards him, and he recognized them as the robbers from the store. His eyes widened as he saw the man holding a pillow in his hands, and he opened his mouth to yell. Before any sound escaped his mouth though, the pillow was pressed over his entire face.

He bucked under the pressure of the man on top of him, trying to breathe in. All he managed to breathe in was the fabric of the pillow, and his body began jerking due to the lack of precious oxygen.

"Hold him down!" he heard the woman hiss. "He can I.D. us! We can't let him give a description!"

"I know, I'm not stupid!" he heard the man shoot back. He took advantage of their arguing to let his hand find it's way to the side table, where he knew the nurse had left the glass of water. His hand finally connected with the cool glass and he grabbed it, immediately swinging it up where he figured his assaulter's head would be. He felt it connect with something hard, and the pressure was instantly lifted from his face, providing a reprieve from the smothering pillow.

He gulped in a big breath of air as soon as he could, then rolled out of bed to try and get some distance between him and the two attackers. The pain barely registered as his IV's were ripped out of his arm. He had a brief moment of satisfaction as he saw the man holding his head, a thin line of blood trickling down from his forehead. The satisfaction was short-lived though; the woman lunged towards Mac, and as he stepped back, he felt his legs hit the reclining chair.

He fell over in the chair, grunting in pain as he hit his bullet wound. The woman, who was closest to him, came forward with another pillow, but as soon as she was close enough, MacGyver thrust his foot out. He caught her squarely in the chest, knocking her back and making her gasp for breath. She fell to the floor and MacGyver pushed his way to his feet, involuntarily curling his arm around his side. He looked up as the man rushed towards him and raised his fist. MacGyver's reaction time was barely too slow, and the man's fist connected with Mac's jaw.

MacGyver fell towards the wall, and he couldn't help the short cry of pain as his wounded side was the first thing that connected with the wall. He managed to turn around, and this time his reflexes were fast enough that he was able to duck and avoid the next punch. His attacker's fist connected with the wall right where MacGyver's face had been a split-second before, and MacGyver felt a small amount of victory when he heard the crack of the fist hitting the hard surface, accompanied by the man's cry of pain.

The moment was short-lived though; a knee came out of nowhere and smashed into his ribs. MacGyver let out a pained cry as he fell to his knees. " _Come on,"_ he thought to himself. " _Surely we're causing enough noise to attract SOME attention?!"_

He once more tried to push himself to his feet, but the adrenaline rush he had received when the fight had begun started wearing off, and his body just refused to respond. He covered his face with his hands out of instinct, but the attacks never came.

"Really?!" he heard an annoyed voice say from above. He opened his eyes and looked up. Relief flowed through him as he saw Jack standing above him, the attacker's head in the crook of his friend's elbow. The man was struggling to get out of Jack's grip, but the agent wasn't letting go anytime soon.

Jack looked over at the woman, who was still on the floor, clutching at her midsection. He looked back to MacGyver. "I'm assuming these are the two from last night?" he asked, cocking his eyebrow.

"Oh yeah," Mac panted. "That's them alright."

"In here!" Jack called out. Two security guards hurried into the room, relieving Jack of his prisoner and hauling the woman to her feet as well. They were escorted out of the room while Jack knelt down next to his friend.

"Hey," he said. "You okay?" he asked. MacGyver nodded, and Jack held out his hand. MacGyver took it, letting Jack pull him gently to his feet. Nurses and a couple doctors had rushed into the room, and they stared at the two men. They were all staring at MacGyver's side, making Jack glance down curiously.

"Uuuhhh, Mac?" he said, nodding towards the kid's injured side when MacGyver responded with a questioning look. MacGyver glanced down to where everyone was looking, seeing a slowly-expanding red spot on his clothes.

As soon as he saw the injury, the pain hit Mac full force and he groaned, clutching at his side and leaning on Jack for support.

"Get him back on the bed," one of the doctors ordered. The room was full of activity, but MacGyver barely registered any of the hustle and bustle. The only thing he was able to focus on was the stability his partner was providing, and as soon as he was helped back on his bed they injected something into him; within moments he had drifted off again.

 _0-0-0_

As he woke up once more, he heard someone talking to the side of him. He started to tense up, but he soon recognized it as Jack's voice. Mac opened his eyes and looked around, seeing Jack standing with his back to him. His partner was talking on the phone, so MacGyver took the time to assess what his injuries were.

He couldn't feel his side at all, but he assumed that was because of the pain medications they had given him. His jaw was extremely sore, and he was sure if he could see a mirror, there would be a lovely bruise forming on the jawbone. He glanced down at his left arm, seeing a gauze patch secured with medical tape in the crook of his elbow. He wondered what had happened there, then remembered that he had yanked his IV's out of his arm when he was trying to get away.

He sat in thought for a few more moments, then Jack hung up the phone and turned around. He jumped a little when he saw the kid staring at him. "Geez," he complained. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!"

"What?" Mac asked with a grin. "I thought you were a cool-headed spy," he teased. "You're not supposed to be scared by me staring at you!"

"Yeah well, it's been a stressful twenty-four hours," Jack defended.

"Fair enough," MacGyver conceded. "The robbers?" he asked.

"In prison," Jack promised. "They're being held on assault charges for now until you can positively ID them as the robbers from the store," he explained. MacGyver nodded. "You know," Jack said after a moment of silence. "You had me freaked for a second," he admitted. "I heard the commotion coming from your room, and by the time I got inside, all I saw was you colliding with the wall and falling to the ground. When you didn't get up, I was really worried."

"Well, first off: I didn't fall, I ducked!" MacGyver insisted. Jack's mouth turned up in a half-grin, a look of teasing written all over his face. "Second," Mac continued before Jack could argue. "Thank you for being there," he said. Jack nudged his shoulder gently.

"'Course kid," he responded. "You know I always have your back. But...maybe next time let someone else be the hero? I'm not sure if the Foundation can handle all the hospital bills you're racking up," he teased. MacGyver chuckled.

"If I ever happen to be in a place that's getting robbed again," he said. "I'll think about it. I won't promise anything because you know if I can do something to help, I'm going to do it. That's just who I am," he finished. "But I will try to avoid getting shot again," he promised in a more joking tone. "That way I'll stay out of the hospital and the Foundation won't have to pay the bills!"

Jack chuckled. "Maybe I'll just have to come with you everywhere you go from now on," he threatened. "Make sure you stay out of trouble!"

"Jack, you cause just as much trouble as I do!" Mac said incredulously.

"I do not!" Jack said, placing a hand over his heart and feigning offense.

The hospital staff walking past the room couldn't help the smiles and chuckles that escaped them as they listened to the two grown men argue like boys. That was Jack and MacGyver's friendship though. They fought and bickered like an old married couple, but they were always there for each other when the other needed help. That's how you know you've got a true friend.

 _ **Wowza, did someone order a cheese pizza with this story? Sorry guys, I really suck at endings and they always end up being super cheesy and lame XD**_

 _ **Love it? Hate it? Should I print it out and burn it? ;)**_


End file.
